Queen Breena's Full Contact Politics

[Chromaticus]

Yeah, I have a similar experience with Araumi of the Dead Tide — just … doesn't do what the deck is supposed to if the number of players is not 4.

[Chromaticus]

Cauldron Haze as another potential "save the team" card.

[pokken]

Cauldron Haze as another potential "save the team" card.

It's possible, but I don't think we really want save the team so much as save breena - it is good for that, but it's a bit of a nonbo with lightning greaves and has some other problems. I think I would prefer Unearth type effects or repeatable reanimation on dudes since I can just plan to put Breena in the bin if I have say Volrath's Stronghold or something? But dunno. I haven't had any real desire for single use effects like that yet.

I like that my existing save the team cards have some other uses mostly, like TP or Flawless Maneuver being free.

--

I had an excellent game last night where Breena did all her work. I managed to survive a turn that would kill me on my draw with Prismatic Strands and then the Nekusar, the Mindrazer player died to their own Spiteful Visions, then it was down to just me and the Dragon player who was insanely loaded for bear with Temur Ascendancy and Dragon Tempest. I blew him out with Prismatic Strands which he mana drained, then Settle the Wreckage that put it away. Thne next turn I stalled with Selfless Squire.

Next turn I had to choose between risking dying to dragon tempest by keeping inkshield up and casting winds of abandon and hour of revelation and getting some combat damage in. I went for the combat damage because I had a stacked hand…

Unfortunately I got blown out as he had a Heroic Intervention -- I was only at 7 life and he had both haste and Dragon Tempest so I could have easily died, but I *think* it would have been safer to plan on him not killing me with Dragon Tempest from 7 and holding up Inkshield.

Risky either way, but a great game all things considered.

Prismatic Strands is *amazingly* good.

[Chromaticus]

How did you get blown out with Heroic Intervention playing Settle the Wreckage? Seems like that avoids both forms of protection intervention gives.

Still haven't jumped on buying the deck - waiting to see if I get any magic cash for Xmas.

[pokken]

How did you get blown out with Heroic Intervention playing Settle the Wreckage? Seems like that avoids both forms of protection intervention gives.

Still haven't jumped on buying the deck - waiting to see if I get any magic cash for Xmas.

I accidentally snipped part of the next turn where I had to choose between hour plus winds or keeping inkshield up. I went for winds plus hour and I died to intervention.

[Chromaticus]

I'm liking the idea of Condemn in the removal package — I think the more visible this deck is about punishing players attacking me, the more I'll get those free rolls you were talking about.. but:

A little backdrop -

My meta consists of only 3 decks that I play against at the moment — getting 2 returning players into the game, and one newer player.

Araumi of the Dead Tide - pretty stock budget list
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed - exactly what you'd expect
Winota, Joiner of Forces - Norin + hatebears

The perks are that I never have to worry about infinite combos, free spells, or cheese. The downside is that if I'm not careful, I'll win every game because I'm tuning too hard, and will ruin the fun.

[pokken]

I'm liking the idea of Condemn in the removal package — I think the more visible this deck is about punishing players attacking me, the more I'll get those free rolls you were talking about.. but:

A little backdrop -

My meta consists of only 3 decks that I play against at the moment — getting 2 returning players into the game, and one newer player.

Araumi of the Dead Tide - pretty stock budget list
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed - exactly what you'd expect
Winota, Joiner of Forces - Norin + hatebears

The perks are that I never have to worry about infinite combos, free spells, or cheese. The downside is that if I'm not careful, I'll win every game because I'm tuning too hard, and will ruin the fun.

I thought a lot about condemn when I added oblation. I think it is reasonable. Especially in a meta without combo creatures.

In a ruric meta you may want to consider a couple removal creatures. Our deck is like a third spells so you could get brutalized by him. Maybe solitude or ravenous choops

[Chromaticus]

I think Cavalier of Night might be the one for me — doubles as Breena, the Demagogue recursion.

That's a good point Pokken.

[Chromaticus]

Any thought to Walking Ballista in your list?

Has a lot of the same perks as Hangarback Walker, but incidentally goes infinite with Heliod, Sun-Crowned.

Solitude seems to be best in class - probably better than Condemn, although it sounds like both wouldn't be the worst idea with your dragon woes. Would be so savage to Brought Back as well :

Edit:

Thinking about Court of Grace in the monarchy package too.

[pokken]

Any thought to Walking Ballista in your list?

Has a lot of the same perks as Hangarback Walker, but incidentally goes infinite with Heliod, Sun-Crowned.

Solitude seems to be best in class - probably better than Condemn, although it sounds like both wouldn't be the worst idea with your dragon woes. Would be so savage to Brought Back as well :

Edit:

Thinking about Court of Grace in the monarchy package too.

So ballista is strong for sure I just was not sure I wanted to paint that kind of target. My experience with on board combat stax has not been great -- people tend to target you. It changes people's combat calculus if they might get their creature killed to Walking Ballista if they trigger Breena. So I think it's maybe in an optimal list but not so much one trying to play politics.

Court of Grace is definitely playable! It's a bit slow for my tastes since I don't see a creature until turn 4 or 5 depending on how I ramp. If it made the creature at the end step I'd think a shoe in.

Solitude is great. I only own the one foil and it's in Ephara - maybe if the price settles down some

[pokken]

I am going to start making a token attempt to keep track of changes to this deck.

Today

In

• Fateful Absence
• Despark
• Dusk Legion Zealot
• Nullpriest of Oblivion

Out

• Enlightened Tutor
• Smothering Tithe
• Verge Rangers
• Heliod's Intervention

The root of this change is that I want some more cheaper creatures and more removal spells. Heliod's Intervention weirdly has just been too expensive for me to ever want to use - or not impactful enough for the mana anyway. I can usually just let people do whatever bs they want and deal with it with generic removal spells or Hour of Revelation. I may add Devastating Mastery if I want another mass artifact/ench removal.

Enlightened Tutor and Smothering Tithe were just kinda goodstuff placeholders that have no belonging in the deck. Verge Rangers has yet to *EVEN ONE TIME* let me play a land off the top. I don't know what's up with that card. The combination of restrictions is just so bad it never works out. I always have a grip full of lands.

The card I am most nervous about is Despark but it kills most of the stuff I am worried about.

[Chromaticus]

Thoughts on Dauthi Voidwalker?

Very strong evasive 2 drop with a nice assymetrical hosing factor.

[pokken]

Thoughts on Dauthi Voidwalker?

Very strong evasive 2 drop with a nice assymetrical hosing factor.

I feel like almost any evasive two drop is defensible. I did not have a great experience with this card in sygg as it draws a ton of attention however.

[yeti1069]

I would have thought Smothering Tithe would be great here with Breena giving opponents an extra 1-2 cards/turn.

[pokken]

I would have thought Smothering Tithe would be great here with Breena giving opponents an extra 1-2 cards/turn.

Yeah it's definitely a solid choice and somewhat synergistic. Just would rather play derpy creatures and instants. It does really help in that the likelihood you aren't really "tapping out" to play it is high though, you'll likely have mana from people drawing cards and have the ability to interact again.

I might pop it in for something I don't like at some point.

[lyonhaert]

So I put this version together recently. Most of the differences are: didn't have some of the cantrip 2-drop creatures and didn't want to run all the fetches.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander (1)

1 Breena, the Demagogue

Creature (33)

1 Angel of the Dire Hour

1 Boreas Charger

1 Cartographer's Hawk

1 Cavalier of Night

1 Daggerdrome Imp

1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir

1 Emeria Shepherd

1 Esper Sentinel

1 Guardian of Faith

1 Hangarback Walker

1 Healer's Hawk

1 Heliod, Sun-Crowned

1 Hushbringer

1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

1 Keeper of the Accord

1 Knight of the White Orchid

1 Liesa, Forgotten Archangel

1 Murderous Rider // Swift End

1 Nullpriest of Oblivion

1 Palace Jailer

1 Royal Assassin

1 Scholarship Sponsor

1 Selfless Spirit

1 Selfless Squire

1 Stoic Farmer

1 Sun Titan

1 Sungrace Pegasus

1 Sunscorch Regent

1 Tymna the Weaver

1 Vault Skirge

1 Weathered Wayfarer

1 Windborn Muse

Instant (16)

1 Anguished Unmaking

1 Brought Back

1 Comeuppance

1 Cosmic Intervention

1 Despark

1 Flawless Maneuver

1 Generous Gift

1 Inkshield

1 Oblation

1 Path to Exile

1 Prismatic Strands

1 Settle the Wreckage

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Teferi's Protection

1 Tithe

1 Unexpectedly Absent

Sorcery (6)

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Hour of Revelation

1 Reanimate

1 Sevinne's Reclamation

1 Toxic Deluge

1 Winds of Abandon

Artifact (6)

1 Archaeomancer's Map

1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Scroll Rack

1 Thaumatic Compass

1 Thought Vessel

Enchantment (1)

1 Land Tax

Land (38)

1 Bonders' Enclave

1 Command Tower

1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin

1 Fabled Passage

1 Fetid Heath

1 Forbidden Orchard

1 Godless Shrine

1 Isolated Chapel

1 Kor Haven

1 Marsh Flats

1 Maze of Ith

1 Myriad Landscape

1 Orzhov Basilica

1 Phyrexian Tower

1 Prismatic Vista

1 Scorched Ruins

1 Tainted Field

1 Thawing Glaciers

1 Vault of Champions

1 Volrath's Stronghold

11 Plains

7 Swamp

Approximate Total Cost:

However, I started off with Karoo and Everglades in the list because I hadn't found my Lotus Vale. And because I hadn't read them properly. And because the game where I actually encountered them and had to read them was one where I started with Karoo, Myriad Landscape, a Plains, and Fabled Passage in hand and my first draw was Everglades. Fortunately I was able to get Breena out on a reasonable turn and draw/play other lands, but those two got replaced by basics after the game.

I really like how awareness and timing are important (and why I like to make sure I have at least one fog in each deck if I can). Also how spot removal can be a partial fog - for example in the 2-3 games I played Saturday with this, I'd Generous Gifted a pretty large incoming commander to mitigate my progress towards losing, as well as Desparking a 27/27 Realm Seekers that I couldn't block at the time.

In an earlier game I got to Inkshield for 11 and then make Hour of Revelation asymmetrical with Flawless Maneuver to hasten closing out the game. And that one was very grindy because the other 3 players were employing edicts and wipes and slowed the game down. And Reanimate has been fun - in the last game that day I got to steal a Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin. The tokens had to keep getting thrown under a couple of Coastline Marauders to soak trample damage, but I managed to keep Krenko around a while.

Originally I was going to try putting together a Breena list that had more of a +1/+1 counter focus with ways to get more counters like Mikaeus, the Lunarch, Archangel of Thune, or Felidar Retreat and ways to use/spend counters like Crystalline Crawler, Abzan Battle Priest, Tenured Inkcaster, Noosegraf Mob, Elite Scaleguard. That kind of stuff. Also a vampire subtheme was emerging in that pile.

I might try working in some of those, but I can see that the larger MV cards take away from being able to hold up mana for answers, so we'll see how that goes.

I also had a question about how you use Sensei's Divining Top. I suspect you kindof use it mostly as a poor Scry 3 when you're about to draw and have a shuffle effect available. Am I correct about that? I ended up slotting Scroll Rack instead thinking it would be better, but I might have to A|B test those since I don't have as many shuffle sources.

[pokken]

I also had a question about how you use Sensei's Divining Top. I suspect you kindof use it mostly as a poor Scry 3 when you're about to draw and have a shuffle effect available. Am I correct about that? I ended up slotting Scroll Rack instead thinking it would be better, but I might have to A|B test those since I don't have as many shuffle sources.

Top plus fetches is a dig 3 yeah. I think of it basically as a card that lets me keep 2 landers with a fetch, since my odds of hitting my third land are extremely high, but it's also really good late game when I'm crucible-fetching.

I don't think either card is good enough without the fetch suite.

[duducrash]

With lands as diverde as this, do Field of the Dead come in consideration to you? Not really a suggestion, just trying to understand/get better at deck building

[lyonhaert]

Top plus fetches is a dig 3 yeah. I think of it basically as a card that lets me keep 2 landers with a fetch, since my odds of hitting my third land are extremely high, but it's also really good late game when I'm crucible-fetching.

I don't think either card is good enough without the fetch suite.

I might try it with a couple more fetches that aren't needed elsewhere soon. Probably slotting Vampiric Tutor in ahead of them, though, since aside from the 5 lands that I do run atm that can get lands and shuffle, there are 14 other potential shufflers. Also replacing most of the 5 two-color lands that are not fetchable except by tutor or Wayfarer with basics if not fetches and might try out Terrain Generator. I ended up ordering Flagstones of Trokair and Lotus Field, though.

It's pretty neat how well white's catch-up-on-lands works when you just build around it slightly.

[pokken]

It's pretty neat how well white's catch-up-on-lands works when you just build around it slightly.

Yeah the ramp potential in this deck has been really a surprising pleasant thing. I am regularly the land leader into the mid game, sometimes catching up 4 or 5 lands off of a Archaeomancer's Map or Scholarship Sponsor. Because the combat tricks and removal have kinda outsized power I'm usually able to deal with other people catchup ramping with me with the sponsor.

One of the interesting things that continually blows me away is how happy I would be to have 2 or 3 more copies of Orzhov Basilica

[lyonhaert]

One of the interesting things that continually blows me away is how happy I would be to have 2 or 3 more copies of Orzhov Basilica

hahaha - I definitely considered that I could have 3 if it were mardu. There's Guildless Commons as a consideration if a land tapping for cc works.

[pokken]

hahaha - I definitely considered that I could have 3 if it were mardu. There's Guildless Commons as a consideration if a land tapping for works.

Sadly we're pretty color demanding needing 1WB by turn 3 every game.

[lyonhaert]

Okay, I was skeptical of Royal Assassin initially, but watching players avoid attacking or using certain activated abilities because of it is a good example of the hidden power dynamics and virtual CA in this game.

Also got to flashback Sevinne's Reclamation to return Flagstones of Trokair followed by Scorched Ruins. I'm starting to feel a little iffy on Ruins, though, because it makes so much c that I sometimes feel like I might slightly overextend in order to spend it. I should just try not to worry about that, though that game I would have preferred to copy my Lotus Field instead and might test Thespian's Stage. Might also be handy to have another mana sink other than Bonders' Enclave.

I've had Drana, Liberator of Malakir and Mikaeus, the Lunarch in my list in hopes of testing, but in spite of having her on the field a couple times that last game I didn't get an opportunity to trigger. I also seem to not have more than 2-4 creatures at a time anyway, so it might be better somewhere else than in this build. Guess I could try Orzhov Advokist again and/or Reconnaissance.

[pokken]

Yeah one of the reasons I gravitate toward self growing creatures is I never want more than three on the board - just no use really. I want a blocker and to attack for maximum breena triggers so that's two attackers and a blocker. So we want very tall creatures to not overextend.

Royal assassin has been there mostly because of sentimentality but it is close enough to ghostly prison on a guy that I've found it very good if not indispensable. It does blocker duty well. Especially once you make it a 5/5 you can block and kill something so it changes combat math a lot.

It's an interesting thought about scorched ruins. I find it good for casting cards like comeuppance and inkshield deceptively. But it is the most awkward of the multi mana lands for sure. I think if we ever got another round of bouncelands (say monocolored Karoos that don't require an untapped land) it could be cut.

[Chromaticus]

Aerial Surveyor — ooh baby! Catch up mechanic, here I come! This one just keeps on working, holds +1/+1 counters, and dodges wrath's to keep the beats coming. I'm glad I hadn't quiiite ordered the deck yet.

In the same vein, what do you think about Smuggler's Copter? Has a lot of the same perks!